Various systems are available for recording a television program. For example, video cassette recorders (VCRs) allow a user to record and playback television programs. The user of the VCR may watch the television program while it's being recorded and save the recorded program for future viewing. Alternatively, the VCR user may program the VCR to record a television program while the user is away or watching a different television program. The recorded program can then be viewed at a later time.
Another type of video recording device is a digital video recorder (DVR). A DVR may also be referred to as a personal video recorder or a personal television server. A DVR records television programs on a disk drive (or other random access storage device) instead of a video tape. Typically the disk drive is not removable from the recorder and provides greater storage capacity than a conventional VCR video tape. For example, a VCR video tape may provide up to six hours of storage capacity while a DVR may provide twenty or more hours of storage capacity. The DVR can read from and write to virtually any portion of the disk drive in a random manner. This capability allows the DVR to record one television program while simultaneously reading a recorded television program. Additionally, the DVR allows a user to begin viewing a recorded program while the program is still being recorded. For example, the viewer may program the DVR to record a particular television program that is one hour in length. Twenty minutes after the program has started, the viewer begins watching the recorded program from the beginning. While the viewer is watching the beginning of the program, the DVR continues recording the remainder of the program.
Television broadcasts typically include a series of program segments and advertising segments transmitted to a viewer of the broadcast. If the viewer wants to watch a particular portion of a television broadcast, such as the weather portion of a news program, the viewer must either watch the broadcast until the desired portion is displayed or record the entire program and, later, search through the recorded program to locate and view the desired portion. This process is tedious and results in the recording of significant unwanted program information.
The system described herein addresses these and other problems by allowing the viewer to select particular portions of a television broadcast to view and/or record.